Ingredients
- At least 1 pound of meat (pork or beef, I usually use ground beef)
- 3 stalks of celery
- 2 large carrots
- 1 red onion
- Tomato paste (300g or 2 of the little cans)
- Chicken stock or broth (either is fine)
- Red Wine (Pinot Noir; nothing fancy)
- Milk
- Bacon (maybe around 4 slices or more if you want)
- Butter
- Olive Oil
Equipment
- Large steel pot or ceramic Dutch oven
- Chef’s Knife
- Vegetable Peeler
- Large steel mixing bowl
- Liquid measuring cup
- Wooden spoon
Recipe
- Prep vegetables: Dice onion, slice celery into 1/4 inch pieces, dice carrots.
- Even though you’re peeling the carrot first, be sure to still give it a wash.
- Toss in a large mixing bowl to keep them in one place.
- Take bacon and cut into strips as best as possible.
- Toss into same mixing bowl with vegetables.
- Heat pot/Dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat.
- Drizzle a good bit of olive oil and around 2 tablespoons of butter (get butter melted)
- Add cut vegetables and bacon into pot. Cook this down until vegetables get translucent and soft (just shy of browning)
- Throw in meat and cook until brown.
- Continue cooking to cook out the liquid.
- If this seems to be taking forever, fold up a paper towel and dab that in there a few times to soak up some liquid.
- Should be some nice brown bits on the bottom (fond) so pour in some wine to deglaze the pot (using a spoon to scrape up the fond and thus clean the bottom of the pot). The alcohol will cookout, so wait until the alcohol smell is gone before moving to next step.
- Add the tomato paste and stir together.
- Pour in 1 cup of milk and stir.
- Pour in 2 cups of chicken stock/broth.
- Add salt and pepper to taste (that means taste it and see if it tastes…good)
- Lower heat, cover, and simmer for at least 45 minutes.
Thoughts
This recipe is great way to learn about mirepoix (pronounced “meer” “pwah”). This is a French cuisine staple in which diced veggies are sauteed and used as a base of flavor for many dishes including soups and sauces. A pillar of cooking, one can learn to use this technique to make sauces to add to their foods. For example, just cook a chicken breast in a pan and there is leftover fond on the pan? Throw in some oil and diced veggies, cook it down, deglaze with wine, cook it up, and thicken with butter for a gravy/sauce to add to the chicken.
Plus, it’s always good to get more practice with dicing vegetables.